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31 Dec 2010

Two members of a dynastic British stage family. Two-thirds of the writing team that created Fiddler on the Roof. Two indefatigable chroniclers of the theatre. The man who brought Oh! Calcutta! to the stage. One of the last Ziegfeld Girls. One of the last surviving stars of the Yiddish Theatre. And Baby June. The theatre lost these and many other lights during 2010.

Respectively, Corin and Lynn Redgrave, Jerry Bock and Joseph Stein, Michael Kuchwara and John Willis, Hillard Elkins, Doris Eaton Travis and Mina Bern were among theatre people we lost in 2010. As 2011 dawns, Playbill.com now looks back to reflect on the contributions of theatre folk who died in the past calendar year.

Some names you know, some had no international profile. They all made an impact. Whether their contributions were felt locally, regionally, nationally or around the world, the writers, producers, advocates, actors, composers, musicians, lyricists, directors, technicians and designers of the following list contributed to the welfare of the art form.

Leslie Nielsen, 84, the "Airplane!" and "Naked Gun" star who spent the second, more-successful half of his bisected performing career sending up the serious parts he specialized in the first half of his career, on Nov. 28, in Florida.

Oscar Brockett, 87, a prominent theatre historian who authored the ubiquitous college text "History of the Theatre," on Nov. 6 in Austin, TX

Jill Clayburgh

photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Jill Clayburgh, 66, an Oscar nominee for "An Unmarried Woman" whose short spell of film superstardom as a 1970s symbol of female liberation was framed on either side by several prominent stage turns, on Nov. 5 at her home in Lakeville, CT.

Noel Taylor, 97, who designed the costumes for dozens of Broadway shows, including some of the most popular productions of the 1950s, on Nov. 4 in Los Angeles.

Jerry Bock, who composed the indelible score to Fiddler on the Roof, and collaborated with longtime creative partner, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, on many other shows during a prolific 15 years beginning in 1956, on Nov. 3 in Westchester County, NY.

Shannon Tavarez, 11, the young actress who appeared as Young Nala in The Lion King on Broadway, and lost her battle with leukemia, on Nov. 1 at the Cohen Children's Medical Center in New York.

James MacArthur, 72, the actor son of late actress Helen Hayes and famed playwright Charles MacArthur, on Oct. 28 in Florida.

Joseph Stein, 98, the veteran musical librettist who penned the books to such shows as Fiddler on the Roof and Zorba, on Oct. 24 in Manhattan.

Tom Bosley

Tom Bosley, 83, the Broadway character actor who won a 1960 Tony Award for playing Mayor LaGuardia in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Fiorello!, and later became a TV star on "Happy Days," on Oct. 19 in Palm Springs, CA.

Simon MacCorkindale, 58, the dashing British actor of stage and television, on Oct. 15 in London. He was 58.

Arthur Penn, 88, a serious-minded director who left a significant mark in both film and theatre with works like "Bonnie and Clyde," "Little Big Man," Two for the Seesaw and The Miracle Worker, on Sept. 28, at his home in New York City

James Stovall, 52 a Broadway actor who worked with Bob Fosse and acted in the original production of Ragtime, on Sept. 26 at a hospital in Manhattan.

Frank Bayer, 74, a production manager with many Broadway credits, on Sept. 22 at the Actors' Fund Medical Center in Englewood, NJ.

Kevin McCarthy

Kevin McCarthy, 96 who, while never attaining the status of a star, worked steadily on stage and in film for nearly seven decades, on Sept. 11 at the Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis.

Harold Gould, 86, noted character actor known for his work on "Rhoda," Broadway and Off-Broadway, on Sept. 11 in Los Angeles.

John W. Kluge, 95, the German-born, self-made billionaire who at one time owned Playbill magazine, on Sept. 7 in.

George David Weiss, 89, the author of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and composer of a few lesser-known Broadway musicals, on Aug. 23 at his home in Oldwick, NJ.

Suzanne Grossman, 71, an actress and writer who performed in the original 1966 Broadway production of The Lion in Winter, on Aug. 19 in Los Angeles.

Audrey M. Ashley, 83, one of the major theatre critics of 20th-century Canadian theatre, on Aug. 16 in her Stratford, Ontario, home.

Paul Ryan Rudd, 70, an actor who for a brief period in the 1970s and 1980s was a leading player on Broadway and interpreter of Shakespeare, on Aug. 12 at his home in Greenwich, CT.